Its postseason time for area basketball teams. The Division 2 basketball region tournaments begin Monday and later this week the Division 1 district tournaments get started.
The Division 2-AA tournament is at Evangelical Christian School, while St. George’s is the host for the D2-A tournament.
Here is the D2-AA schedule:
Boys
Monday, Feb. 11
(4) ECS 43, (5) St. Benedict 42
Tuesday, Feb. 12
(1) Briarcrest vs. ECS, 7:30 p.m.
Wednesday, Feb. 13
(2) CBHS vs. (3) MUS, 7:30 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 15
Consolation game, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, Feb. 16
Championship game, 7:30 p.m.

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Looking for a high school game to watch during the holiday break? If so, here is a schedule of some of the local tournament games.

Local Basketball Tournaments

Dragon Fire Girls Invitational
At Collierville High School

Dec. 26
First round
Northside 88, Fayette-Ware 63
White Station 61, Manassas 48
Bolton 61, Hamilton 51
Fairley 59, Houston 47
Millington 57, Kirby 22
St. Agnes 59, Byhalia 46
Germantown 70, Raleigh-Egypt 33
Collierville 57, Northwest 19
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The news out of Chattanooga is good for three area girls soccer teams.

In Class AAA, Collierville is going to its third consecutive title match. The 2005 state champions and 2006 state runnerups got a early second-half goal by Jamie Neal and held on for a 1-0 semifinal win over Oak Ridge. The Lady Dragons (20-0-5) are ranked No. 1 in the state and No. 6 in the in the National Soccer Coaches Association of America/adidas high school poll.

Coach Bill Gillespie’s squad will take on Murfreesboro Siegel or Knoxville Bearden in Saturday’s championship match.

In Division 2 semifinal action, Harding Academy and St. George’s won semifinal matches to set up an all-Memphis championship in Chattanooga on Friday for the state D2-A title. Harding Academy’s Alex Black scored in the 36th minute to give the Lady Lions a 1-0 halftime lead, and Chelsea Brandon and Black scored in the second half as Harding (15-4-1) beat the University School of Nashville, 3-0 in one Div. 2-A semifinal game.

St. George’s defeated Lausanne 3-1 in the other semifinal. Adeline Brown had a hat trick for the Gryphons, scoring in the 3rd, 66th and 75th minutes.

In Division 2-AA action ECS dropped a 1-0 decision to Chattanooga Baylor in a semifinal match.

Congratulations to the girls soccer teams that won today and advance to Chattanooga for the state tournament. In Class AAA both Houston and Collierville won. Houston (18-5) won 4-0 at Arlington and Collierville (18-0-5) defeated Liberty at home, 5-0. Both have the ability to win it all, but will need the breaks it takes to win the state title.

In Division 2-AA, last year’s champion St. Agnes was defeated by Girls Preparatory School from Chattanooga 4-2 on penalty kicks. Neither team could score in regular time or OT.

Hutchison the third-seed from West Tennessee had to travel to Chattanooga Baylor and lost 5-0.

The only D2-AA team to win was the ECS Lady Eagles. They went into double overtime before prevailing 2-1 over Brentwood Academy on two goals by sophomore Abi Sanvee.

The D2-A sub-state was dominated by Memphis teams. Three of state’s final four teams are local teams. Top seed St. George’s beat IC 14-0; second seed Harding won 6-0 over St. Andrew’s-Sewanee and Lausanne outscored Davidson Academy 8-6. Only TRA lost, losing 7-0 to Univ. School of Nashville.

Division 1 play begins Wednesday and D2 starts on Thursday.

Mustang boys, Dragon girls win Region 8-AAA titles
Houston’s boys cross country team won the Region 8-AAA boys title 14 consecutive years until last season when the Spartans of White Station defeated them. But, on Friday at Shelby Farms coach George Gibson’s team decided that one year without the region title plaque was long enough, as they blitzed the field taking 5 of the top 9 positions for a total of 30 points to easily outdistance the second-place Spartans (50 points) and Collierville (55). All three teams qualified for next Saturday’s state championships in Nashville.

The Mustangs were led by Paul Hill (16:51, 2nd place), Camelo Mannino (5th), Will Mischke (6th), AJ Bernstein (8th) and Kyle Smith (9th).

White Station’s Alex Bransford (3rd place), Nathan Coleman (4th) and Graham Wittington (7th) all finished in the top 10 to lead the Spartans.

The Dragons’ Kyle McLarty, a junior, took the individual honors winning with a time of 16:26 over the 5k course.

Memphis Central’s Larry Burton finished in 10th to earn a spot at the state meet.

Virginia Hine, a senior from White Station, dominated the girls portion of the region race, winning with a time of 18:42. In the team competition, Collierville and Houston battled for the region title with the Dragons edging the Mustangs by one point, 40 to 41. The Dragons top three runners — Sherell Hicks (2nd), Haley Greenwell (3rd) and Kristin Kelly (5th) finished before any Mustangs runners, giving Collierville the early edge. But, the Mustangs rallied back by sweeping 6th through 9th-place to make it close. Houston was led by Meredith McFarlin.

The third girls team to qualify was White Station. The Spartans finished with 44 points.

On Thursday afternoon in the Division 2 Region Cross Country Championships at Shelby Farms, the wind blew, the rain fell and it was cold and muddy, but for the runners racing 5 kilometers in a race to qualify for state — it was worth it.

In the girls D2-AA race St. Agnes’ Kacey Nobert (left) ran an 18:33.5 time to win the individual championship and lead
the Stars to the region title. Teammates Kyle Weaver (3rd), Ryan Weaver (4th) and Aidan Shea (5th) also finished in the top 5 for Coach Jay Mathis. Only St. Benedict’s Elizabeth Altizer was able to breakup the sweep by the Stars. Altizer’s finish helped SBA place second while ECS edged St. Mary’s to earn the third and final qualifying spot for the state. ECS was led by Emily Griesbeck (15th), eighth-grader Carley Lane (18th) and Devin Scruggs (19th). The girls D2-A race was dominated by Harding. The Lions’ Leah Raich finished sixth overall (21:23.2). Lausanne and FACS also qualified for the state.

The boys D2-AA race as expected was won by Coach Nick Dwyer’s CBHS squad. Five of the top 11 finishers were Purple Wave runners, led by race winner Zack Turner (left). He ran a 17:13.3. Mat Kenwright from SBA was second with a time of 17:29.9. Kenwright helped the Eagles qualify for state by finishing second. The third and final state team qualifier was ECS. The Eagles tied MUS with 63 points after you counted the top five runners on each team. But, the tie-breaker is whose sixth runner did the best, and the Eagles edged the Owls to earn the spot at state.

In the D2-A race, Harding and St. George’s also tied with 35 points with the Lions winning the tiebreaker. Both teams advance to state along with Lausanne, FACS and Tipton-Rosemark. Ben Jenkins was the top runner for Harding, while Stephen Williams paced the Gryphons.

To qualify for state in Division 2-AA a team had to finish in the top three in Thursday’s meet, while individually only the top 10 finishers qualify for the state championships to be held in Nashville next Saturday, Nov. 3. In Division 2-A, all teams and the top 10 finishers qualify.

Top 30 Girls

Place AA Place A Place Runner School Score Time

1 1 Kacey Nobert St. Agnes 1 18:33.5
2 2 Elizabeth Altizer St. Benedict 2 19:41.1
3 3 Kyle Weaver St. Agnes 3 20:42.3
4 4 Ryan Weaver St. Agnes 4 20:46.2
5 5 Aidan Shea St. Agnes 5 21:12.8
6 1 Leah Raich Harding Academy 6 21:23.2
7 6 Victoria Darling St. Benedict 7 21:26.2
8 7 Hunter Mitchell St. Mary’s 8 21:29.3
9 8 Ashley Hall Briarcrest 9 21:33.2
10 9 Emily LaForce St. Benedict 10 21:41.4
11 10 Mary Elisabeth Tipton Hutchison 11 21:50.1
12 2 Kalena Baskin Harding Academy 12 21:54.0
13 11 Loren Bruce Briarcrest 13 22:00.3
14 12 Allison Connell St. Mary’s 14 22:06.5
15 13 Emily Griesbeck ECS 15 22:10.2
16 14 Rachel Atkins Hutchison 16 22:25.9
17 3 Chelsea Essary Harding Academy 17 22:36.9
18 15 Carley Lane ECS 18 22:44.5
19 16 Devin Scruggs ECS 19 22:48.5
20 17 Kaitlyn Stoddard St. Benedict 20 22:55.6
21 18 Lydia Hyatt St. Benedict 21 23:01.7
22 19 Colleen Scheurz St. Mary’s 22 23:11.9
23 20 Caroline Seward ECS 23 23:18.7
24 21 Julia Gates St. Agnes 24 23:21.0
25 22 Sarah Beasley ECS 25 23:27.4
26 23 Connor Robinson Hutchison 26 23:29.2
27 24 Megan Marchant Hutchison 27 23:31.9
28 25 Kendall Person ECS 28 23:36.8
29 4 Mallory Sharp Harding Academy 29 23:38.8
30 26 Courtney Seward ECS 30 23:41.9

Top 30 Boys

Place AA Place A Place Runner School Score Time

1 1 Zack Turner CBHS 1 17:13.3
2 2 Mat Kenwright St. Benedict 2 17:29.9
3 3 Joseph Welsh ECS 3 17:36.7
4 4 Matt Rider CBHS 4 17:41.6
5 5 Matt Grisham MUS 5 17:43.6
6 6 Josh Vieira MUS 6 17:44.5
7 7 Tyler Catterton CBHS 7 17:50.6
8 8 Jonathon Mace ECS 8 17:51.8
9 1 Stephen Williams St. George’s 9 17:54.5
10 9 Charles Christiansen St. Benedict 10 17:59.6
11 10 Morgan Prince CBHS 11 18:00.8
12 11 Jack McNelis CBHS 12 18:06.9
13 12 Brad Pitawankwat St. Benedict 13 18:09.2
14 13 Jared Elmer St. Benedict 14 18:10.9
15 14 Shea Gabrielleschi MUS 15 18:14.6
16 15 Jordan Griesbeck ECS 16 18:15.7
17 2 Ben Jenkins Harding Academy 17 18:17.3
18 16 Bryan Glazer CBHS 18 18:21.5
19 17 Matthew Murphy MUS 19 18:29.2
20 18 Ben Chandler ECS 20 18:29.5
21 19 Bradley Roelofs ECS 21 18:32.9
22 20 Alex Firehammer St. Benedict 22 18:34.9
23 21 Alan Blount MUS 23 18:38.5
24 22 Adrew Murphy CBHS 24 18:43.5
25 23 Jordan Cole ECS 25 18:45.9
26 3 Oliver Lange St. George’s 26 18:49.4
27 4 Andrew Garner Harding Academy 27 18:52.6
28 24 Mark Miller ECS 28 19:03.6
29 5 John Williams St. George’s 29 19:08.7
30 25 Kyle Treece St. Benedict 30 19:13.2

The state golf tournaments finished last week, but that was only the beginning of the post-season action for area teams.
The state volleyball tournaments are being played this week in Murfreesboro, while local soccer teams and cross country runners are battling in region, section and sub-section tournaments to advance to next weeks state soccer and cross country championships.

VOLLEYBALL
In this mornings volleyball action, two Memphis teams won and four area teams lost. Two more local teams play this afternoon.
In Division 2-A, Harding Academy beat SBEC in three games and Immaculate Conception defeated St. George’s in four. Harding and IC will play tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the winners bracket final of the double-elimination tournament. St. George’s and SBEC will meet Thursday morning in an elimination match.

In Division 2-AA both Hutchison and ECS lost. The Sting won Game 1 vs. Girls Preparatory School, but lost the next three. ECS did not have any luck against defending state champion Nashville Father Ryan. Ryan swept the Eagles in three games. ECS and Hutchison face one another in the 9 a.m. Thursday elimination match.

Houston and Munford both play later this afternoon in the Class AAA portion of the tournament.

GIRLS SOCCER
In girls soccer, Thursday is an important day. At 6 p.m. Collierville hosts Houston in the Region 8-AAA championship. The Dragons and Mustangs have been the dominant teams in Class AAA for the last few years. Collierville won 5-3 in the regular-season matchup. Collierville (16-0-5) is ranked No. 12 in the USA by National Soccer Coaches Assocaition of America/adidias High School soccer National Rankings. Houston is 17-4-0 and looks to have righted itself from a mid-season slump.

In the Region 7-AAA Todd Purcell’s Arlington Tigers will host Jackson’s Liberty Tech. The Tigers defeated Brighton 8-0 in Tuesday night’s semifinals. Arlington junior Kelsey Forsythe scored the first two goals for Arlington, and Brittani Handley and Taylor Lindsey also added two goals for the Lady Tigers (10-5-4).

The region winners will host the region runnerups in sectional matchups on Saturday.

In Division 2 soccer, Saturday is the sub-state round of action. St. Agnes earned the No. 1 seed in the West by defeating ECS 3-0 Tuesday night. The Stars will host GPS at noon. ECS will host Brentwood Academy also at noon. Third-seed Hutchison will travel to Chattanooga Baylor. In the smaller classification, St. George’s is the top seed and will host IC at 3 p.m. Harding Academy will host St. Andrew’s at 1:30 p.m., Lausanne the third-seed will travel to Nashville Davidson Academy and No. 4 seed Tipton-Rosemark will travel to University School of Nashville. All winners advance to next weeks state tourney in Chattanooga.

CROSS COUNTRY

The Division 2 Region Championship will be run Thursday at Shelby Farms, girls at 3:45 p.m. and boys at 4:30 p.m. The Region 7-AAA Championships is Thursday at Arlington Development Center, girls at 1:15 p.m., boys at 2 p.m. On Friday, the Region 8-AAA Championships are at Shelby Farms, girls at 4 p.m. and boys at 4:45 p.m.